Blake Prize

Not to be confused with Blake Poetry Prize.

Blake Prize
Date	1951 (1951)
Country	Australia
Hosted by	The Blake Society (1951-2016) Casula Powerhouse (since 2016)
Reward	A$35,000
Highlights
Most awards	Eric Smith (six times)
Inaugural winner	Justin O'Brien (1951)
Website	Blake Prize

The Blake Prize, formerly the Blake Prize for Religious Art, is an Australian art prize awarded for art that explores spirituality. Since the inaugural prize in 1951, the prize was awarded annually from 1951 to 2015. Since 2016 it has been awarded biennially.

As of 2021, the non-acquisitive prize, awarded since 2016 by the Casula Powerhouse Arts Centre (CPAC), is worth A$35,000. In addition, CPAC awards the Blake Emerging Artist Prize, an acquisitive prize of A$6,000 (formerly the John Coburn Emerging Artist Award), and the Blake Established Artist Residency, which includes a residency and solo exhibition hosted by CPAC.

History

The prize was established in Sydney in 1949 as an incentive to raise the standard of religious art and to find suitable work to decorate churches. It was founded by Jewish businessman Richard Morley, the Reverend Michael Scott SJ, a headmaster of Campion Hall, Point Piper, and subsequently rector of Aquinas College (a Catholic residential college for university students in North Adelaide), and lawyer M. Tenison. The Blake Prize is named after the artist and poet, William Blake. The inaugural Blake Prize was awarded by the Blake Society in 1951 to Justin O'Brien.

The Blake exhibitions have been a regular travelling exhibition around Australia, visiting various major cities and provincial galleries.

The award of the Blake Prize to Charles Bannon in 1954 for his Judas Iscariot was one of the most controversial in its history; this opened controversy over what constituted religious art and over "abstract expressionism" which threatened to overwhelm the exhibition.

In 2000, the prize shifted its focus from strictly religious art to an exploration of spirituality, and some of the entries proved controversial. In 2007, former prime minister John Howard and former Catholic archbishop of Sydney George Pell expressed disapproval of art works showing the Virgin Mary in a burqa, and a hologram of Christ morphing with Osama bin Laden. In 2008, The Australian's art critic Christopher Allen resigned from the judging panel over an entry by Adam Cullen showing the crucifixion of Christ.

The prize was known as the Blake Prize for Religious Art until its 56th edition in 2007, and was based at the National Art School in Darlinghurst at this time. For its 57th edition in 2008, it was rebranded the Blake Prize, subtitled "Exploring the spiritual and religious in art".

In 2008 the Blake Society, in collaboration with the New South Wales Writers' Centre (now Writing NSW), established the Blake Poetry Prize to link art and literature and to give Australian poets new possibilities to explore the nature of spirituality in the 21st century.

In 2011, Australian art historian, educator and exhibition curator Rosemary Crumlin authored a book documenting 60 years of the Blake Prize.

In 2012, the National Art School was replaced as exhibition partner by the National Trust's S. H. Ervin Gallery in Observatory Park, in Sydney's city centre, for the 61st edition of the awards.

In 2014 there were new commercial sponsors, and the venue partner became UNSW College of Fine Arts (now UNSW School of Art & Design).

The prize was administered by the Blake Society up till and including 2015. After the 63rd edition of the prize in January, chair Rod Pattenden said that it would not be able to continue owing to lack of sponsorship, suggesting that the prize was seen as "too open-minded" by religious organisations and "too religious" by secular people. In July, the Casula Powerhouse Art Centre (CPAC) and Liverpool City Council announced that they would be funding and managing the prize, with the exhibition and awards moving to Casula in Western Sydney. They promised that A$25,000 would be available in perpetuity.

In 2016 CPAC took over the prize for the 64th Blake Prize, and it became a biennial award. It now focuses on the broader spiritual arts rather than religious art. The Casula Powerhouse took over the Blake Poetry Prize in the same year.

Blake Prize for Human Justice

From 2009 until 2014, the Blake Prize for Human Justice, worth A$5,000, was sponsored by the Maritime Union of Australia. The winners were:

• 2009: Dianne Coulter
• 2010: Fiona White
• 2011: Abdul Abdullah
• 2012: Saif Almurayati, a former refugee
• 2013: Franz Kempf AM
• 2014: Hedy Ritterman

Current prizes

As of 2021, there are three prizes awarded by Casula Powerhouse:

• The Blake Prize, a non-acquisitive prize of A$35,000
• The Blake Emerging Artist Prize, an acquisitive prize of A$6,000 (formerly the John Coburn Emerging Artist Award)
• The Blake Established Artist Residency, a residency and solo exhibition, hosted by Casula Powerhouse

List of winners

Ordinal	Year	Winner(s)	Name of work(s)	Notes
1	1951	Justin O'Brien	The Virgin Enthroned
2	1952	Frank Hinder	Flight into Egypt
3	1953	Michael Kmit	The Evangelist John Mark
4	1954	Charles Bannon	Judas Iscariot
5	1955	Donald Friend	St John and Scenes from the Apocalypse
6	1956	Eric Smith	The Scourged Christ
7	1957	Elwyn Lynn	Betrayal
8	1958	Eric Smith	The Moment Christ Died
9	1959	Eric Smith	Christ is Risen
10	1960	John Coburn	Triptych of the Passion
11	1961	Stanislaus Rapotec	Meditating on Good Friday
12	1962	Eric Smith	Eucharistic Landscape
13	1963	Leonard French	Ancient Fragments
14	1964	Michael Kitching	Last Supper-Premonition
15	1965	Asher Bilu	I Form Light and Create Darkness-Isaiah 45:7
16	1966	Rodney Milgate	Ascension
17	1967	Desiderius Orban	Hosanna
18	1968	Roger Kemp	The Cross
19	1969	Eric Smith	The Assassin's Creed
20	1970	Roger Kemp	Denial
		Eric Smith	Christ's Flesh: Living, Suffering and Resurrected
21	1971	Desiderius Orban	Transition to Christianity
22	1972	Joseph Szabo	Black Friday
23	1973	Keith Looby	Your Motel Calvary Still Life Flowers
24	1974	Stuart Maxwell	Christ at Emmaus
		Ken Whisson	Tobias and the Angel
25	1975	Rodney Milgate	Thoughts on Holy Thursday
26	1976	David Voigt	Blue Requiem
27	1977	John Coburn	Hozanna
		Rodney Milgate	Tree
28	1978	Noel Tunks	The First Friday Retreat
29	1979	Ian Gentle and Alex Trompf	Roadside Altar Piece Comas
30	1980	Leonard French	Instruments for a Drama Meditation
31	1981	David Voigt	Meditation
32	1982	Mary Anne Coutts	In Mockery of Christ
		Suzie Marston	Sunday School Work Books
33	1983	Geoffrey Harvey and Ann Taylor	The Offering
34	1984	Mary Hall	The Spirit of God hovered brooding over the face of the waters
35	1985	John Gould	Votives to Passion
36	1986	Roger Akinin	The Day of Atonement, Scapegoat and Apostate
37	1987	Ian Grant	The Monks Cloak
		Alan Oldfield	A High and perpetual shewing of Christ's mother according to Julian of Norwich
38	1988	Lise Floistad	This sign is a hidden treasure which desires to be known
39	1989	Warren Breninger	Hail Mary
40	1990	Gillian Mann	The Chest
41	1991	Alan Oldfield	Raft III
		Rosemary Valadon	Before the Fall
42	1992	George Gittoes	Ancient Prayer
43	1993	John Davis	Some Thoughts on a Miracle
44	1994	Hilarie Mais	Veiling Silence
45	1995	George Gittoes	The Preacher – Kibeho Massacre Series, Rwanda
46	1996	Rachel Ellis	Woman at Jesus' feet
47	1997	Thomas Spence	Christmas Day 1914 (God's Truce)
48	1998	John Adair	One Dark Night (from St John of the Cross Poem Dark Night of the Soul)
−	1999	not awarded
49	2000	Frances Belle Parker	The Journey
50	2001	Lachlan Warner	Vitrine of lightweight (Sunyata), disposable (annica) Buddhas, in a range of festive colours, postures and mudras
51	2002	Hilton McCormick	The Harvest
52	2003	Shoufay Derz	Linking Back (Part 1)
53	2004	AñA Wojak	Pieta (Dafur)
54	2005	James Powditch	God is in the Details (Intelligent Design)
		Louise Rippert	Dance
55	2006	Euan Macleod	Untitled Landscape with Figure
56	2007	Shirley Purdie	Stations of the Cross
57	2008	David Tucker	A Local Girl Comes Home
58	2009	Angelica Mesiti	Rapture (silent anthem)
59	2010	Leonard Brown	If you put your ear close, you’ll hear it breathing
60	2011	Khaled Sabsabi	Naqshbandi Greenacre Engagement	(3 channel video)
61	2012	Fabian Astore	The Threshold
		Eveline Kotai	Writing on air
62	2013	Trevor Nickolls	Metamorphosis
63	2014	Richard Lewer	Worse Luck I'm Still Here
Changed to biennial award
64	2016	Yardena Kurulkar	Kenosis 2015
65	2018	Tina Havelock Stevens	Giant Rock
66	2020 (2021)	Leyla Stevens	Kidung, a 3-channel video work	Awarded 13 February 2021, due to the COVID-19 pandemic
67	2022	SJ Norman	Cicatrix
68	2024	Shireen Taweel	Shoe Bathers

See also

• Phoenix Prize for spiritual art
• Art of Australia